Genealogy Chat

I have just read your thread and I am so shocked they could do this to children but to be honest what the goverment and social services do/did don't surprise me at all and I took names of the books and will try and get them to read

Found this thread very interesting. I read the book Empty Cradles and it was heartbreaking. I also bought the DVD The Leaving Of Liverpool which is just as sad. My husbands two great aunts were shipped to Australia when their parents died. Their brother ran away to sea so he didn't have to go. The two girls eventually returned to England but one of them never spoke to her brother again. She blamed him for not saving them from going away even though he was only Fifteen at the time. It's all so sad. Maureen

nudge for later ref. RIta

I think this is terrible. It reminds me of those stories about the unmarried mothers in the 50s who had no choice but to give their babies up for adoption, and those Magdalen laundries that the Catholic church still doesn't want to take responsibility for. (And I'm talking both as an adopted person and a Catholic, born in the eighties.) Interesting also that not a lot changes as regards Social Services. Intervening in families that should stay together and not intervening with those that need help. I knew a friend at college not long ago who self-harmed and whose parents were abusive to her and her younger siblings and she used to tell me all about it, but when I and a friend went to a senior tutor (this was at sixth-form) they couldn't do anything about it because the girl in question wouldn't speak out about it herself.

Would this apply to children in Scotland ? Anthea

nudging for future ref Mhairi

great site...thanks J

This is a new British Home Child website, recently set up: http://bhc(.)kindredbond(.)com/index(.)php remove brackets George

Bookmarked for later. What sad stories, and what sadness for both the parents and the children. Families torn apart with little hope of being reunited. Interestingly, my mother-in-law told me some years ago about a Barnado connection in her family. After a couple of years investigating that side of the family tree, I found that Harriett Anne NEWTON married Bernard Charles E BERNADO in 1885. She was already in her 40s. However, I know very little else, despite googling. I seem to remember he might have been born in Ireland.

nudge Chris

Hi Thanks for the tip: Nudging for future reference Lou

Thank you George - Nudging for future reference. Netty.

nudge for later

Much earlier on, also discovered that Lord Egremont from the Petworth Estate (West Sussex) shipped many of the poor from his estate off to Upper Canada. It was called the Petworth Emigration Scheme and yes, of course, it was to save the landowners having to keep contributuing funds towards their upkeep. They obviously thought it was far more economical to pay their passage to Canada. http://www.petworthemigrations(.)com/ http://www.rootsweb(.)com/~canon/research-topic-immigration-petworth.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petworth_Emigration_Scheme

nudge

nudge - brill site - thanks...joanie

nudge. This is terrible. I never knew anything about it. Caz

nudge for later . Kathy

I've got a family fo 9 - 6 of which are missing but interestingly 3 brothers that I have traced all died in BC in Canada. Their mother died in 1894 and although they are with their father in 1901 after that nothing.........I think I need to look at these harrowing sites.

I think OC is not completely correct. Part of the reason for sending 'young people' to the colonies was to populate them with young British people before all the foreigners took over. There is no way I will do anything other than condemn the Australian treatment of the kids. However I think many of the others were better off. Do some research on so called living conditions in this country. In 1851 life expectancy was only to the age of 27 in Liverpool. Out in country life expectancy was 59. It was from the towns that the kids went out. Read the comments of the old soldiers who saw the walking skeletons arrive at army training camps in WW I, watched them fatten up in a few weeks, only to go off to slaughter in the trenches. It is a few years now since we did fostering. I find it hard to say anything good about the vast majority of social workers we encountered. Their personal politics took high priority over any well being of the children involved. Clive - with as big but slightly different soap box to OC